Kazakh Healthcare Minister meets with EU Commissioner for Health

ASTANA. KAZINFORM - Healthcare Minister of Kazakhstan Yelzhan Birtanov met with EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis on the sidelines of the Global Conference on Primary Health Care, Kazinform has learnt from the ministry's press service.

During the meeting, Minister Birtanov noted that in his recent State-of-the-Nation Address President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev paid utmost attention to the quality of medical services, raising wages of medical workers, the need to increase investment into the primary health care sector and ensure food safety.

He added that right now Kazakhstan is looking into the possibility of creating a new authorized body which will ensure food safety and in that respect the country is interested to learn from the EU experience.

Vytenis Andriukaitis, in turn, reminded that earlier the EU and Kazakhstan had established partnership and signed the agreements on healthcare. The EU Commissioner also lauded progress in Kazakhstan-EU partnership and expressed hope for further strengthening and expansion of cooperation.

Also, Andriukaitis emphasized Kazakhstan's key role among Central Asian countries in achieving universal health coverage of the population and the need to step up investments into primary health care.